Cell phones are like leaf blowers to me: convenient, but obnoxious as hell. Call me Cro-magnon, but I’ve never seen the appeal of being reachable 24/7. However, I am slowly crawling into the twenty-first century.
I resisted having one until a road-side breakdown in 2000 convinced me I should. I have to admit, the flip phone’s come in handy since moving to a ferry-dependent island. Some months I rack up five or six minutes.
I’ve watched the smart-phone revolution from the sidelines, fascinated and horrified by pouting selfies, thumb-obsessed diners and throngs of commuters with bent necks and dropping heads.
On the upside, it’s hard to argue against the convenience of an e-reader, a GPS and the Internet, portable and at my fingertips.
So, I finally broke down and bought one. I haven’t yet figured out how to get my contacts into it, and I still prefer talking to someone over doing the thumb dance, but give me ten years – I’ll get there. I’m already enjoying the convenience of catching up with Twitter and Facebook while on the ferry, and I love being able to share “in the moment” pics from live events, like when I attended When Words Collide in Calgary.
But be warned! Pic-sharing convenience has a dark side. Last week I shared a piece of art I wish I hadn’t. Okay, it felt like art at the time, but it was my lunch. I’ve since crawled back up that slippery slope, but I have nightmares of making fish lips and snapping selfies in the bathroom.
Have you taken a slide down that slippery slope?
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A freight trained called summer is thundering by, leaving backyard parties and BBQs in the din of its wake. Thankfully, it still has a full head of steam with miles of summer track yet to travel. And what a glorious summer it’s been so far, with good company, an abundant fruit crop, and plenty of fresh salmon.
Living on Denman Island with roadside produce stands and a thriving Saturday market, we mark the passing season by which fruit crop is ripening. First came the cherries, then the loganberries and blueberries. We started picking blackberries a week ago, about the same time the transparent apples started falling from the trees, and yesterday we harvested the apricots.
Happily, the abundance doesn’t stop there. In book news, I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Karen Oberlaender. Check out our conversation in her short and snappy “
I know one couple who would disagree, at least as far as weddings are concerned, and they tell me they had their pick of church and reception venue bookings for that unluckiest of days.
It was a privilege to be there to help them celebrate their diamond anniversary … a celebration that spanned several days, thanks to some clandestine sibling planning, and the company of family and good friends.
